Queen's Guide Update #1

As it is half term this week, I thought I would update you on my progess towards my Queen's Guide so far. You can keep up with what I have done on my Queen's Guide page too.

Service in Guiding

Regular Volunteering
This is on hold until I move house (some point next year - we have made an offer on a house and are now working through all the legal bits).
Residential
I've not done anything towards this one yet, I'm looking to find something in Spring/Summer 2020 as that fits in better with all the other things I have planned (like moving house and getting married!).
Event for 2 Units
I emailed my District Commissioner to ask if she needed any help for Thinking Day 2019. We then had a district meeting and she essentially handed the whole event over to me! I made a suggestion of a venue and the other leaders there had some other ideas so now I am in the process of sorting through all of them and coming up with a rough price for each, along with coach prices so we can make a decision as a District at the next meeting in early December. I will probably also make a Doodle poll of some sort to find out what day would be best for the leaders before we offer it out to all the girls.
Working Group/Committee
I have spoken to the woman who runs our local campsite, who has said that she could definitely find me something to do for their 50th anniversary camp next year. However, I need to find out if this would count as currently it is within my County and this clause specifies that it must be out of the county. Once I have moved house, it will be but I am unsure whether this would count.

Outdoor Challenge

I haven't looked into this much further, as I probably won't do it until next summer at the earliest.

Personal Skill

I started having weekly clarinet lessons again at the end of August. I bought myself a little notebook which I keep a record of all the things my teacher says in each lesson and also what I have practised each week. This will serve as my record of how much I have improved, if I don't manage to take my Grade 8 in the year given by the Queen's Guide (I'm still going to do it regardless!). I also created a spreadsheet which allows me to see how many hours of playing I have done, and how close I am to the target of 60 hours.

There are a few weeks where I haven't managed to get in any practice between lessons, as it has been harder than I anticipated to fit it in once I have got home from work and eaten. It has been really nice to get back into playing again after so long though and I was surprised at how quickly certain things have come back to me! I'm definitely still a little bit rusty, mostly in my ability to count complicated rhythms, but I'm enjoying myself a lot and I can see an improvement every week.

For those of you who are interested, I am doing my Grade 8 under the Trinity College London exam board (yay for no scales!), and my pieces are:

• Sarabande et Allegro, Grovlez
• Sonata in Eb (Adagio and Allegro Moderato), Mendelssohn Bartholdy
• I Got Rhythm, Harvey
• Scheherazade (3. Satz), Rimsky-Korsakow [orchestral excerpt - first 10 seconds of video only]
• Sinfonie Nr. 6 (1. Satz), Beethoven [orchestral excerpt]
• Sinfonie Nr. 6 (2. Satz), Beethoven [orchestral excerpt]

Community Action

I haven't done anything towards this yet, I will start putting out some feelers soon for some ideas from local STEM businesses and then will start properly on this in the New Year, hopefully.

Residential

I haven't done anything towards this yet, as there are very few residentials over the winter months. I have told my other half that I will come on the next camp he takes his Beavers on as a general helper - I plan on floating around to whoever needs an adult at the time, so I spend time with people I don't know, rather than sticking with him and his Beavers for the whole camp.

Healthy Heart Badge

18/10/18

This week we finished off the parts of the Healthy Heart badge that we didn't get a chance to do while we were on pack holiday. We started off by asking the girls how they would take their pulse. One girls suggested the following

    Girl: "with that armband that blows up"
    Brown Owl: "no that's your blood pressure"
    Girl: "oh, yeah, it's that clippy thing for your finger isn't it"
    Brown Owl: "well, yes, but I meant how would you do it now, with no other equipment"

We then explained that you can take your pulse in your wrist or in your neck, and it is different for each person how easy it is. All the girls then had a go at finding their own pulse and leaders moved around the circle helping those that couldn't. Once the majority of them had managed it, we said to the once who hadn't that it was OK, there would be more opportunities through the meeting to find it.

We then said that we were going to do activities based on the 3 sixes we had on pack holiday. We started with the swimming six - all the girls had to 'swim' 3 lengths of the hall any stroke they wanted (except backstroke!) and then Brown Owl would start a stopwatch for a minute and they had to count how many heart beats they could feel in that time. It was a very abrupt change from 24 girls frantically running up and down, arms flailing, to 24 girls stood almost sliently, muttering numbers under their breath! We gave each sixer a piece of paper to write down her sixes results.

We then did gymnastics - the girls had to hop one length of the hall and then take their pulse again and write it on their sheet. Finally, we did horse riding - the girls had to pretend to ride their horse for 5 laps of the hall and take their pulse again. We then asked them which activites got their heart beating faster (horse riding, almost unanimously).

We then did a different clause - each six had to make up a game for the rest of the unit to play. We gave them a while to come up with their game and test them out with their six and then we picked one group that had finished to test theirs out with the whole unit. The game they had come up with was actually pretty good - it was a simple variation on Fishes:

• Split the girls into 4 evenly sized groups and put one in each corner of the room
• You will also need 2/3 chasers (depending on size of hall and number of girls)
• Each corner gives themselves a name
• A Leader calls out one of the names and that corner has to run in a circle around the hall (inside the other groups)
• The chasers and the rest of the unit count loudly to 5 
• The chasers have to stand still until they reach 5 and then they can try and tag as many of the girls left running as possible
• Girls are safe if they reach their corner without being tagged and they sit out at the side if they got tagged
• The winner is the last group with people in its corner 

The girls actually really enjoyed playing this game and we could probably have let them carry on for the rest of the meeting but we decided to let a different six have a go. This game seemed far more complicated, and I'm not 100% of the rules but they involved girls stood in a line and going under each others legs or jumping over someone curled up on the floor! I'm not sure anyone understood completely what was going on...

We then had run out of time so we told the other sixes that they could test their games after half term, if they remind us, and we finished the meeting by giving out a few more left over crafts and booklets from pack holiday and then let the girls go home.

It has been a chaotic term, but the girls have enjoyed all the meetings, as far as I can gather. It's going to be nice to have a week off as a leader though! Next weeks blog will be an update on how far I have got with my Queen's Guide Award.

Penny Hike

11/10/18

We had read about penny hikes on various Guiding facebook pages and wanted to give it a try so we thought the autumn term would be perfect - light enough to see as we left the hall but dark enough for them to find it exciting as we finished. We picked this week as the Scouts that meet in the small hall at our church have their annual AGM and so we offer up our significantly larger hall and do something either out of the hall or in the smaller one.

When we arrived at the meeting, one of the girls who had come on pack holiday came up to us and handed each of us a chocolate with a thank you note stuck on the back! She even gave me one to give to my other half. It was entirely unexpected and made the whole weekend (and the following week after little sleep) worth it.

We then got out the hi-vis that Specsavers gave us a few years back (Brownie sized!) and got all the girls to put one on, as well as their coat. We then split the unit into 2 and set off, one group followed by the other. Our group decided that TaiLs would be Left and therefore Heads was Right. At each junction, we picked a different girl to toss the coin and decide which way we would be going. There was a lot of throwing the coin into the air and letting it land on the ground! We also added coin tosses for crossing at the pedestrian crossing and going into the park for 5 minutes. Surprisingly enough, the coin landed Tails, meaning we went into the park! The girl then 'confided' in Brown Owl that she had done it deliberately! We knew she had but we didn't really mind spending a few minutes in the park if it meant the girls had a good time. We then continued on our penny hike until 6:50 when we turned and headed back to the hall so we were there for about 7.

We then sat the girls down in a circle and handed out all the pack holiday crafts and posters which we had forgotten to do on the Sunday as they all went home. As we got to the end, a cry suddenly went up "there's a bear in the foyer!" and all the girls immediately got up and ran to the door to see. We calmed them down and got them out of the way of the door so the bear could actually get in. The bear was Winston Bear from Winston's Wish - the girls had raised money for them in the summer term (when I wasn't there) and he had come to collect his cheque. We had got hold of one of the giant cheques and had Winston and the Brownies pose for a photo. One of the girls announced proudly to the Mum from Winston's Wish that we had raised £14,637 so we had a good laugh and then corrected her - we had actually raised £146.37! We took a second photo with just me and the daughters of the Mum who works for Winston's Wish (who was there) and one of the other leaders, as we knew we had photo permissions for all of them to go on the Winston's Wish website if needed.

Winston Bear then left and we finished off the meeting quickly and then let all the girls go. We then had girls coming back in dribs and drabs because they had forgotten their coats! By the time they had all gone, we only had one left, and a Brownie hoodie. I think the girls enjoyed this meeting - they loved the fact that the penny was choosing where they went and that they had a really lucky penny because it took them to the park! We did however realise on the way home that we hadn't actually given Winston Bear the cheque that can be put into the bank (as opposed to the giant one!) so we'll have to slip it to the Mum next week...

Pack Holiday 2018 - Sunday

07/10/18

This morning the girls got up slightly later than they did yesterday. We had the same for breakfast as we did yesterday and, once they had done their duties and inspection, they got their coats on ready to go to the river. One of the girls said she felt a bit sick so Brown Owl stayed with her and we all set off with the rest of the girls. Brown Owl managed to persuade her that a walk outside might make her feel better so they started by walking to the end of the drive and surprisingly she felt fine so they followed us a few minutes behind. The walk there was fairly uneventful although we did get a lot of giggles from the girls when all the cycling groups that went past actually replied to the girls when they said hello!! Luckily for us the river wasn't too deep when we got there so we drew some boundaries, laid down the rules (no splashing or pushing or you get out), and let the girls in. A few people walked past and commented on how nice it was to see the girls enjoying themselves outside. After a while, we got the girls to get out and dry off. We then set off back to the house. For once, I ended up at the front of the group (I usually end up with the slow walkers at the back!) and we were walking along having a nice chat. Two of the leaders set off ahead of us on their own to make sure lunch was started before we got back (we had enough adults to cover our ratios like that!). Shortly after they had gone, one of the girls from further back appeared next to me saying she really needed a wee and what should she do. I told her she would have to wait as there weren't any toilets nearby and she spent the rest of the walk back constantly telling me how much she needed to wee! She kept asking if she could run ahead because she knew the way and I kept saying no because then she would be without an adult. As we got closer to the house, her walk turned more and more into a waddle/dance! We then got to the back of the house and I told her she could run from there to the toilet and she was off like a rocket! We came round the corner and the front door was flapping in the wind slightly and she was nowhere to be seen! She reappeared a few minutes later looking much happier.

The girls all got back and changed out of any damp clothes they were wearing and then sat down for a very late lunch - spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread. It went down an absolute treat - the girls all ate in silence, finished everything that was on their plate, and many went back for seconds! Definitely more of a hit than the chicken nuggets and fish fingers with chips that we used to do!

After lunch there was only really enough time to pack up their bags (and shove sleeping bags into miniscule bags) and then do a speedy tuck shop before counting up the points. The girl with the most points gets to choose her keep-sake first (this year we had a selection of different games and things from the shop Tiger). We gave out badges and leaders presents and then let all the parents in to collect their daughters. There was absolute bedlam for a bit and then, just like that, they were all gone for another year.

We stayed for another hour cleaning the whole house and then we went home for a much need sleep! This year was a slightly odd one in that our whole timetable got tipped on its head by the rain on Saturday but it went well regardless. We didn't manage to finish either of the badges we were doing, but we can do the last few bits at meetings later in the term. And the girls enjoyed themselves which is the main reason we do this, even if it does take it out of all the leaders.

Pack Holiday 2018 - Saturday

06/10/18

The girls were up fairly early this morning - 6:30 by the other leaders' accounts! I popped out to wake up my other half in his tent while the girls got dressed and then we had breakfast - cereals followed by eggy bread, bacon, and toast. Once we were done eating, the girls all had duties to do - the Hostess six cleared everything off the table, the Cook six went and helped the leaders dry up the dishes, and the Health six wiped the tables, swept under the table and checked the toilets had loo roll and were clean. Once they had all finished, they had a short amount of time to tidy their beds and then it was inspection time. We introduced an extra sticker for the neatest bed (which we didn't tell them about) and surprised even ourselves with the girl we gave it to - she's usually a bit messy and scatty but she had really made an effort making her bed! We made her day by giving her the second sticker.

Once we were done with inspection, we started our first set of activities. One group made book folding hedgehogs (and decorated them with glitter glue and googly eyes), another made bookmarks and the third made posters to advertise the Brownie Olympics we are holding tomorrow. I sat with the girls making bookmarks and chatted with them. The girls started off in their sixes doing one of the three activities but could then move round once they had finished the one they were on (the only bottleneck was the number of seats to do the book folding).

Our original plan for the weekend was for the girls to make a packed lunch (a clause for the Healthy Heart badge) and then walk to the river to eat it but the weather was so miserable that we decided not to eat outside. The girls each made their packed lunch and then we had a picnic on the living room floor instead! Each lunch had a sandwich (cheese, ham, jam, or marmite), a packet of crisps, a selection of fruit/veg (cucumber sticks, grapes, baby tomatoes, bananas, and apples), and a small cake (mini choc chip muffin or chocolate mini roll). The girls really enjoyed being allowed to sit on the floor and eat, and it was interesting to see what groups they formed too.

We then decided that we would postpone our river walk until tomorrow as the weather was meant to get nicer so we set up the tuck shop. We had a selection of various things from Trading which we sold, along with some sweets (they could have 2 each) and some other small trinket like items. The girls enjoy choosing things to spend their £5 on, although this year the parents hadn't listened when we asked for small change and we had to write a few IOUs and pay them back at the end of the shop, when we had some change!

We then did a few more of the crafty things, which we had planned to do tomorrow. This time, we had one six at a time designing a mascot for their sixes sport from random craft things we found in the cupboard and wanted to get rid of! The other sixes could choose to either make a poster about healthy/unhealthy food (or halfy if you're a Brownie!!) using various foody magazines we had collected or colour in a pattern only uing 3 colours. Annoyingly, a pattern can always be coloured in using no more than 4 colours but the Artist badge syllabus specified 3 so I improvised by not colouring in some sections to make it work! The girls really enjoyed this activity, and spent ages deliberating over what colours to pick (we had some really nice combinations) and then working out what parts to colour in to make pretty patterns. Mine came out fairly well, I think.

We also had some entertaining choices for the healthy/unhealthy posters, including a bottle of whiskey on the healthy side and a phone on the unhealthy side (admitted correct but not a food!).

The girls doing their mascots also had a great time - they had been given free reign over all the craft things we could find, including some big pots of glitter. We had some interesting designs and a few disagreements over what it was they wanted to make. Our YL stepped in and persuaded them to all make a part of their mascot and then combine it at the end to make a whole thing.

When the girls had finished all their craft, they had to write a song about smoking to perform at the campfire, as one of the clauses for the Healthy Heart badge. We then had dinner - the roast we would have had tomorrow but everything is all topsy turvey now! The girls seemed to enjoy it, alhtough not as much as they have done in previous years - they thought the chicken was a bit dry this year.

While the girls were doing their duties, me, our YL and my other half went outside to sort out the campfire. Unfortunately, because it had rained all night, a lot of the wood was damp. We found a few pieces which were dry and then we dragged out the bag of cardboard that hadn't been used yesterday, and was still dry too. We set up a small fire and the girls all came out to watch it be lit and then we sang a couple of songs:

• Campfire's Burning
• Cecil is my Caterpillar
• Oh You'll Never Get to Heaven

The girls also performed their smoking songs - we had 3 very different styles of song and all were equally as impressive for a quickly thrown together song! We then bought out our surprise of the end of the campfire - magic dust that changes the colour of the flames! We had double checked that it was safe for an outside fire and the only thing we couldn't do was cook over them but we had forgotten the skewers for the marshmallows so that didn't matter. We were about to sing another song while the fire burned green and blue but a massive gust of wind came and blew sparks into the bushes and the girls all ran inside screaming! The three of us who were in charge stayed outside watching the pretty colours while looking for a torch that got dropped in the panic and then spread out the embers so they didn't catch again.

The girls then had hot chocolate and got ready for bed. We told them they could read quietly for a bit and then left them to it. We then spent some time chatting in the living room and then decided to go to bed. We realised we hadn't heard a single peep from them and the lights had been turned off. There was absolute silence from in their room! Success!! We had a great nights sleep ready for tomorrow, with absolutely no interruptions - I guess that's one of the bonuses of taking a fairly young group of girls.

Pack Holiday 2018 - Friday

05/10/18

It's that time of year again - pack holiday weekend! I've done the same thing this year as previous ones, and split my blogs into the 3 days which will be published on Wednesday and Friday this week, and Monday next week with the usual Monday post coming on Wednesday instead. Be prepared for some long posts too - sorry not sorry! The theme of this pac holiday was the Olympics - the girls voted to do the Artist and the Healthy Heart badges and that was the only way we could think of to combine the two!

This pack holiday we went to the same place as usual, Campwood House in Macaroni Woods near Eastleach. All of the leaders arrived at around 4:30 and started setting up. We stuck up all of the posters, organised the craft room, put away the food, and had our dinner. While we were eating dinner, the doorbell went. Brown Owl sent me to answer it and said "if it's your other half let him in, otherwise tell them to go away for a bit, they're too early". I opened the door and it was our Young Leader, much earlier than we had anticipated. I let her in and shouted down the corridor that it was her and Brown Owl shouted back "oh yeah, you can let her in too!".

At about 6:10, the first of the Brownies started arriving. A lot of them haven't been before and so the parents were all wandering around and seeing what it was like. Quite a few of them got a bit confused as to where to park too and just drove slowly around the house until we flagged them down and pointed out the parking area under the trees. Surprisingly this year, none of the parents were late - we often have one or two who get lost and are really late. We did have one say that her phone had taken her to a pub called Macaroni in Cirencester and she thought she was going to be late but then they found us. Just as the last Brownie arrived, my other half showed up too, having come stright from work. He is a Beaver Leader and came to help us out as an extra pair of hands. I helped him set up his tent as the light was quickly fading while Brown Owl did the welcome for the girls and gave out booklets and told them all the safety info

• Don't go outside without an adult
• Don't go in the leaders rooms
• Don't touch the fire in the living room (not that we light it!)
• Don't trip over the tent guy ropes, 
• And most importantly for this year, keep the bedroom door closed while you're getting dressed as we have a man here this year and we often have a few girls who run around in their undies (or nothing...) while getting dressed...

Once they had done that, we set up the first activity of the weekend for them - Olympic Village Building. We had bought loads of cardboard and plastic recycling which we piled up outside, having set up some lights. We also gave each six a roll of packing tape. They were then given two pictures of athletes from their sixes sport (Horse Riding, Gymnastics, Swimming) and then had to build a village for the athletes which would be judged on style and also how well it survived the elements. The girls really went to town on their designs, we had full on swimming pools, changing rooms, stables, and more! We took a short break in the middle of making to have a supper of hot dogs. We then gave them a 5 minute warning (which sent them into panic mode!) and then stopped them. We went round each group and rated their design out of 10. We then tested their resilience by squirting them with a water pistol (one of the ones you can pressurise) and then tipped a bit of a bucket of water over them. The girls extracted their athletes from their village and we rated them based on how dry their people were. One six managed to have one completely dry athlete and the other two sixes' athletes were completely drenched and one of them somehow ended up getting ripped in half! We then gave out stickers for their charts - 3 for the winning six, 2 for second, and 1 for last place. The girls really seemed to enjoy doing this, and we were very impressed with their ingenuity - my other half had done it with his Beavers building castles and said our Brownies were much more creative than his Beavers!

The girls then got ready for bed and had hot chocolate before all disappearing into their bedroom. We leaders sat in the living room and chatted for a while before deciding we were tired too. Brown Owl and I got ready for bed, lay down, closed our eyes, and... heard crying coming down the corridor! One of the other leaders was still up but Brown Owl went to investigate too and there were two girls who were tired and feeling a bit ill. They had a drink of water and we settled them again but by then a lot of other girls had woken up and started talking. Brown Owl gave it a bit of time to settle down but it didn't so she went in and told them to shut up and go to sleep. She came back to bed and we both fell asleep. We both vaguely remember waking up and hearing one of the other leaders going in and saying "Brownies, I am not impressed" and we found out in the morning that it was 2:30 and the two leaders in the room closer to the girls hadn't slept much at all before then!

It has been a fairly straighforward start to pack holiday this year, here's hoping the rest of the weekend goes smoothly too!

First Skills Builder

04/10/18

This week we decided to bite the bullet and start one of the Skills Builders. The girls had all voted in a previous week so we first got the girls who hadn't been there that week to vote for which one they wanted to do. We then reminded the girls which one they had voted for and got them into the two groups. One group were doing the Rope Race from the Lead Skills Builder and the others were doing Mime Time from the Innovate Skills Builder. We copied the instructions from the card onto paper which we gave to the older girls in each group and let them get on with it themselves.

We milled around a bit and supervised, which ended up consisting mainly of bickering mitigation for the Lead group. They had sort of split into two groups and were making an obstacle course from tables and chairs but some of them had mis-understood the instructions and were using the skipping ropes as obstacles instead of holding onto them. We stepped in, paused what they were doing, and explained it to all of them. Once they understood, things went a little smoother, although we then had the problem of them not working well as a team - the one at the front was going too fast, and moaning at the one at the back for pulling on the rope too much. They did eventually get round the obstacle course a few different ways with different people at the front so we considered the section completed!

The other group did far better. We had gathered a random assortment of items, including plant pots, frisbees, a stick, a roll of packing tape, a scarf, and some half done knitting we found in cupboard. The girls then had to choose an object and mime it being something that it wasn't for the other girls to guess (the example on the cards is an umbrella being a walking stick). The girls spent some time playing around with a few items and deciding what they wanted to do and then our YL stepped in and got them sat down in a circle so they could all mime their object for the rest of the group to guess. Brown Owl and I were focussing all our attention on the Lead group and turned round to check the other group were still OK and were pleasantly surprised! They had finished a bit earlier than the Lead group so our YL had decided to play the Iranian Smiling Game with them, from last week. She is an ex-Brownie so we trust her but it's nice to see her leadership skills coming out a bit more each week.

We then did a bit more of the Century Time Travel UMA - this week we did the part about naming birds, flowers or trees. We stood the girls in a circle and went round it getting them to name one from any of the 3 categories, but it had to be one that no one else had said. I was very surprised at how well the girls did with this. You often hear people bemoaning the fact that children these days spend all their time on phones inside and don't know anything about the outdoors but our girls named some very obscure birds (including a Crested Pigeon and a Blue Footed Boobie - which got a lot of giggles). We also discussed the Health Rules that girls lived by 100 years ago:

“     Only feed on wholesome fare, Through your nostrils breathe fresh air,

Clean yourself both in and out, Twist and turn and run about.         ”

 

We read out each of the 4 sections and got the girls to think about what it might mean and then explained it to them. We got lots of giggles when we explained the third line - it used to be thought that you should poo once a day to be healthy (clean inside)! When we said the last line, the girls all shouted "Excercise!", jumped up and started running manically around the hall in circles! Brown Owl looked at me and raised her eyebrows and then said she had an idea. She yelled "Pirates are Coming!!" and all the girls scattered and hid under the chairs around the room. A couple then came out and looked a bit confused and said "wait, we weren't playing Pirates...". Brown Owl laughed and said "I know, I just wanted you to stop running and listen! We then let the girls actually play Pirates to burn off the excess energy they had in their system!

It was then time to say goodbye to the girls and for us Leaders to empty the cupboard of all the things we need for pack holiday this weekend. It always surprises us how much stuff we end up taking with us... I'm hoping that I will manage to get the Pack Holiday blogs up fairly quickly after this weekend, but that all depends on the amount of sleep I get and whether I catch the cold that Brown Owl has (or one from any of the girls)...

Pack Holiday Badges, More Traditions, and Promise Ceremony

27/09/18

This evening was another pre-pack holiday meeting. All the girls coming on pack holiday have been split into 3 sixes, which they chose a few weeks ago. They now need to make a badge to wear so we know what six they are in. Any girl who is not coming on pack holiday is given the opportunity to make a badge of her choice but the girls coming on pack holiday have to make the badge of her six. We had printed out pictures of the three sixes (swimming, horse riding, and gymnastics) for the girls to colour in. We all sat around tables colouring and Brown Owl and our Young Leader operated the badge machine. When I had coloured mine in, I went over to the badge machine and they were having issues. It is an incredibly old machine and it's starting to show its age so some badges weren't quite getting made correctly tonight. I took over from the YL and managed to coax it through the rest of the evening!

Once all the girls had made their badge, we did another clause of the Traditions badge and the Century Time Travel UMA - knowing the parts of the Union Flag. We first held up a complete version and asked the girls what it was called. One said "a flag" and then another said "the Union Jack". Brown Owl said "that's sort of correct, it's got a different name too" and then one of our newer girls said "it's only the Union Jack on a boat, it's the Union Flag on land"! We were all very impressed that she knew that!! The girls were then given the 3 parts of the flag to cut up and stick together to make the Union Flag in their sixes.

As we started that activity, the parents of a girl who was making her promise arrived. We always invite them about half an hour before we finish so they can watch us do a bit of an activity before watching their daughter make her promise. I took the girl who was doing her Hostess over to them and got their drinks orders and then assisted her in making 2 cups of tea.

Once all the girls had done their flag, we put the tables away and got into a circle. We still had a bit of time to spare so we played the original version of the Iranian Smiling Game which is the last bit of the Century Time Travel UMA. We had to stop before all the girls were out though, as they were very good at it!

Finally, it was time for our promise ceremony, and then I helped the girl doing her Hostess badge wash up and then it was home time. There were no left-over Brownies tonight, and the Mum from last week came in with a bunch of flowers, very apologetically!